Scaled Melanin Production to Enable Advanced Materials

Melanin is a largely unexplored biomolecule with a large diversity of molecular composition. It has broad electromagnetic absorbance, is capable of absorbing gamma radiation, is a strong antioxidant, and is resistant to environmental degradation. Despite many intriguing qualities, it has never been produced at industrial scales to enable innovations in materials and coatings. In response to the defined need to develop scaled production of melanin in order to explore development of advanced materials, Luna Innovations is proposing to extract natural melanin for several easily scalable biological sources. Luna will be performing a small-scale survey and down-selection of scalable melanin sources, and purifying several at gram quantities. The melanins will be characterized in a variety of ways to forecast the potential uses of the biomolecule, and will be applied as thin films for characterization as a first approximation of the utility of melanin in coating applications. In phase II Luna will conduct a much broader screen of scalable sources of melanin, and will produce greater quantities. In partnership with some of Luna’s existing collaborators, melanins will be evaluated for use in a variety of materials and coatings. Further, full industrial scaling of melanin will be explored using existing partnerships.